Anna Marie Pyle

Biographical Information:Dr. Pyle is currently William Edward Gilbert Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Chemistry, at Yale University. Prior to that, she was Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University. Dr. Pyle has been named a Searle Scholar, a Beckman Young Investigator, an NSF National Young Investigator and an Irma T. Hirschl Career Scholar. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 1992, Dr. Pyle was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Thomas R. Cech at the University of Colorado. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry under the direction of Jacqueline K. Barton at Columbia University.

Research Summary: Dr. Pyle uses the group II intron as a model system for studying ribozyme catalysis, RNA folding, and RNA-protein interactions. She also studies the mechanisms of RNA helicase enzymes, which are molecular motors that unwind RNA and displace proteins from RNA binding sites. This work is complemented by the development of new computational approaches for analyzing the chemical and structural properties of RNA.